1. Plot Super Structures Will Encourage Newer, Long-Form Storytelling
More often than not, when youre looking at overall plot lines for a movie, one of three things is true: either multiple movies have a single story to tell (i.e. Lord of the Rings), a series of movies depict separate sets of events in a group of characters lives in chronological order, with a loose overall plot connecting them (such as Harry Potter), or, most typically, a single movie has one plot and thats it. What the Marvel movies have done, and will do even more in Phase 2, is introduce the idea of completely independent movies working together towards a single plot. Without getting into too many spoilers, we already know that Thanos, the grinning intergalactic villain at the end of Avengers, will be playing a large role in the next series. From the Iron Man 3 trailer, we see that Phase 2 will pick up where Avengers left off. Nothings been the same since New York, Tony Stark says. Inevitably, well see seemingly unconnected subplots come together to reveal larger stories, just as the cosmic cube from Captain America and Loki from Thor combined to form the largest threat yet in Avengers. Its likely that well see the plot of Avengers 2 unfold more openly by the time that Thor: The Dark World and Guardians of the Galaxy surface. Weve already seen the beginnings. In fact, the very first shot of The Avengers included voiceover of a character speaking directly to the villain of Phase 2. Did you catch it? No? Well, thats just one more reason why youll have to watch it again. And that's how they get you. No matter how you slice it, Marvel is doing something entirely unprecedented here, and it doesn't hurt that there's a talented team of people on the project. The movie industry hasn't been shaken up by new models all that much in recent decades. The rise of the independent film has been good for exploring new stories and finding talent in atypical areas, but that aside, the studios tend to stick to a certain formula: find a property that has already sold welllike a book, TV show, old movie, or comic bookand make movies out of it. While this is pulling on the previous success of Marvel characters, ultimately the model for which these stories are explored is entirely new and it's catching the eyes of everyone in the industry, as well as the viewers'.